


Tipping Point

by Erisette



Series: Dolls [6]
Category: B1A4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Magic, Baro always has his antenna up, Channie is a puppy and must be protected, Dongwoo is a good good boy, Fairy Tale Elements, Family Feels, Gen, Jinyoung is a little shit, Junghwan's life is a sitcom, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, country boys take me home, to the fandom where i belong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-06 22:08:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15204497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erisette/pseuds/Erisette
Summary: The story of how Shin Dongwoo came to the big city to learn magic and somehow tripped into becoming someone's brother: not just once, but four times.(or: Four Meetings and a Business Proposition)(set in the same universe as the rest of Dolls, but can be read alone ^^)





	1. The Scholar and the Optimist

**Author's Note:**

> I know the boys said they aren't exactly breaking up, but it made me Heckin' Sad, kids. So I started writing this to feel better! And to make use of the otherwise useless B1A4 trivia that resides in my poor brain. If you haven't read the rest of the series, it honestly won't matter since this is a spin-off/prequel type thing (but if you like VIXX you might like the series, give it a try y'all ㅋㅋㅋ). Hope you enjoy~!

   There were a multitude of names for the people who deliberately interacted with the non-mundane forces. Some distinguished between different techniques or approaches, but most of them were simply language and dialect differences. In another part of the world, what Shin Dongwoo wanted to be would be called a wizard: in the place that he called home, the term was Scholar.

 

It was a term with a lot of history, some of which no longer applied, rooted in the time when only people with enough resources were able to develop skills to deliberately shape the magic that was everywhere in the world. Usually that resource was money, or connections: sometimes it was having such an abundance of natural talent that a patron took the person under their wing. Dongwoo didn't have that kind of super-abundance of power, nor was he from a family that was terribly well-off, but he did have connections in the form of a mother and older sister who were both full-fledged Scholars. There wasn't nearly as much of a distinction between the haves and the have-nots as there had been thousands of years ago when the Scholarly traditions began--how could there be, when someone with the kind of mediocre gift that wouldn't have been worth developing back in the day could learn to light candles and do other tricks from YouTube tutorials?--but most people still attached a level of respect to the title of 'Scholar' which had to be earned with years of careful and diligent studies. And if Dongwoo was anything, he was careful and diligent.

 

His family had nothing like the money needed to send him to one of the biggest universities, but his mother told him that it was just as well. "They will treat you like a cog in a machine there, son," she had told him firmly. "That is no way to learn Scholarship. One of the small institutes will suit you better: I will get a recommendation from a friend of mine who lives in the big city." She did: and he went, and he successfully held back his tears until his family was far, far out of view.

 

* * *

 

 

   Classes took up most of his time...which was fine. He came to learn, after all. He had a small scholarship, and little allowance from his parents, but as soon as he adjusted to the pace of things he decided that he really needed a part-time job. Another of his mother's friends was an answer to this, too, and not a month after stepping off the train in the big city he found himself with his hands folded respectfully in front of him as he listened to the middle-aged lady explain to him his tasks in the supply shop.

 

"Cleaning, of course," she was saying, adjusting a candle-holder and looking pleased when there was no ring of dust visible underneath. "You know how dust clings in a place full of magic. Sorting, inventory and stocking--you have steady hands, don't you, young man?" Dongwoo nodded earnestly, trying to look like sturdy and dependable and not like he'd already shot up 5 centimeters this year and wasn't quite sure where his elbows were at any given moment. "Good. Some of this is fragile. Jinyoung will do the most volatile things at first, until you've got your hand in...which reminds me, JINYOUNG!"

Dongwoo flinched at the volume, wide-eyed. "Coming, Auntie!" a male voice called out, and in a moment the curtain dividing the front from the backroom parted and a skinny and intimidatingly handsome boy came out from it. "Oh, the new person."

"You two are the same age," she told them. "So you'll get along well. Jinyoung has been working here for almost a year, Dongwoo: he'll be doing most of your training while I'm busy keeping this place running."

"Yes, Auntie," he said. The other boy didn't look _unfriendly_ , exactly, but Dongwoo wasn't good with strangers under the best of circumstances and he rather desperately hoped he would be more welcoming than he seemed at first glance. "It's nice to meet you, Jinyoung."

"Likewise," Jinyoung said with a nod. "Should I start with the backroom, Auntie?"

"Exactly," she said, and patted Dongwoo on his cheek briskly. "Go on, then. Time's wasting."

 

Jinyoung led him to the backroom and started straight away. "Right side are the 'dailys'--things everyone gets all the time, we restock those once a day to make sure the shelves stay full and welcoming. Volatiles seperate, of course--did Auntie tell you about the volatiles?"

"Briefly," Dongwoo admitted. "But I know the concept. Active reagents. Anything with autonomy. That kind of thing."

"Sure. Everything has a use-sheet, you'll take all your down-time learning them by heart while you're new." Dongwoo nodded, trying not to be intimidated, and reminded himself that all he'd ever wanted was to learn magic, so it would be a bit silly to shy away now. Jinyoung continued on with everything in the backroom, one by one. He frequently returned to the wall beside the door, where there was a board with a sort of half-map, half-inventory that showed where everything was.

"Does the stock change a lot?" Dongwoo asked diffidently when he had been shown pretty much everything. Jinyoung blinked at him. "I mean...you keep checking the board, so I thought it much change a lot, so you're always supposed to check, right?"

"Ah. Well..." Jinyoung cleared his throat, looking just a little sheepish for the first time. "I'm, uh...not good at finding things. I tend to lose...well, the board's attached to the wall, and we go by that, so nothing gets mixed up." Not waiting for Dongwoo to reply, he continued breezily, "You don't have to refer back to the board if you don't want to. Now, back out front, I'll show you what you need to do there as well."

"Sure," Dongwoo said. When the other boy turned away he let a little smile escape, relieved that the confident Jinyoung had at least one easily-identified flaw. It made it more likely that Dongwoo's own weaknesses wouldn't be enough to get him kicked out.

 

_(they weren't! even when he managed to knock over an entire display of breakables on his second day when he miscalculated the length of his arm)_

 

The owner was helping a customer, and Jinyoung ducked around her and grabbed something from under the counter; a slim, unlabeled binder. He brought it over to one of the little window-seat alcoves along the side of the store. "This is The Book," he told him, cracking it open and flipping through the pages. "It's got all the store spells. Security--we refresh them once a week, more if needed like around a holiday when there's been more people in and out. Various utility spells. Some of the volatiles need to be re-spelled, either to perk them up or to control them--those are interesting ones. Here, I'll show you one--" he flipped a few pages back and read out a short spell, getting out a tricky complicated passage nimbly, and snapped towards one of the shelves, which let out an odd clanging noise and spat out a brief flash of light. "That one keeps a _lot_ of things in check. You might want to learn it first."

"What school do you go to?" Dongwoo asked.

"I graduated last year," Jinyoung said, sounding slightly offended. "Didn't you hear Auntie say that we're the same age?"

"No, I mean what _magic_ school."

"Oh." Jinyoung smiled, a slightly condescending look. "I'm not really interested in that. I just teach myself." Dongwoo blinked at him, taken aback, and the look became defensive. "You can do that, you know. Not everyone wants to pay money to be graded on the books you read. Besides, I am mostly interested in making new spells--not just learning the old ones."

There was something in there that Dongwoo wanted to protest against, but he couldn't think _how_ and he hated arguments at the best of times. He just smiled awkwardly. "Well, that makes sense, I guess." Jinyoung seemed to accept that, and carried on with explaining the contents of the book.

 

* * *

 

 

Dongwoo liked to think he picked up things pretty easily at the shop: except for the incident with the display that...got knocked over...he had the basics down in five or six shifts. It was closed on Mondays, but otherwise either Auntie or Jinyoung was there pretty much from 12 to 8. Dongwoo worked all day on Saturday and most evenings when the shop was busiest, serving students from the various institutes as well as anyone else who would stop by after work or school for this or that necessity. Compared to the relatively small city he came from, there was a surprisingly large percentage of people who used magic to some degree or another. Jinyoung was a pretty good teacher, although he was slow to warm up to Dongwoo, and was decent company on the shifts where it was mostly the two of them working unsupervised. Their interests were quite different but their personalities meshed pretty well.

 

On one slow Tuesday evening, Jinyoung was enjoying the benefits of seniority by having Dongwoo man the counter while he sat off to the side muttering over a personal project. Dongwoo left him to it, until the regular faint pops of magical feedback aroused his curiosity enough that he couldn't find a reason not to ask: "What are you doing?"

Jinyoung started a little, coming out of the zone, and laughed faintly. "Sorry. I'm working on a new spell. I got the idea from that customer yesterday...you know, with the little dog-construct? I wanted to work on it before the inspiration left me."

"You _really_ should come to one of the schools," Dongwoo said, knowing how unlikely his suggestion was to be accepted. "If not mine then one of the others. They offer part-time options, you know, and most of them are really affordable. I could give you a recommendation...?"

"Not really interested, sorry," Jinyoung said. Dongwoo couldn't tell if he was annoyed or if it was just what his face did sometimes. "I told you, I prefer to do things my own way."

"But how can you make new spells if you don't know the old ones?" He protested, stung at the careless dismissal. "You'll waste all your time reinventing the wheel. That cleaning cantrip you used last week--it's only a tiny bit different from the one they teach us in the basic introductory books. Wouldn't it be better to learn it the old way first, then change it if you want to later? Scholars know what they're doing, you know."

Jinyoung narrowed his eyes at him, looking like he was formulating an answer, when the bell over the door rang and a pack of students from one of the bigger institutes came through. Jinyoung gave him a 'we'll continue this later' kind of look and went to see what help he could offer them. Dongwoo smiled at a student that looked in his direction, grateful that it hadn't come to an argument, and concentrated on his job. Most of the students were in and out within half an hour (one or two of them with more than they'd come looking for, thanks to Jinyoung's successful salesmanship) but there were a handful that lingered. One of them came up to the counter with an armful of assorted goods, which Dongwoo tallied efficiently. When he had the total ready, the student handed him a gift certificate. He squinted down at it, looking over the tops of his glasses. It was one of their gift receipts, all right, but altered: the authorization spell on the countertop vibrated faintly against his fingers as he touched the certificate to it, and some of the numbers looked a little funny. "I'm sorry," he told the sudent politely, handing it back: "We can't accept this."

"Why not?" the student blustered. Three of his classmates were still being helped by Jinyoung, and they looked up as his voice raised. "It's supposed to be good, there's no expiration! My granny gave it to me!"

"I'm sorry, sir," Dongwoo said, "But it seems to have been tampered with. If your granny kept her receipt, she could--"

"Tampered with?" The student planted his hands on the counter and leaned closer, scowling. "Are you calling me a liar?"

"No, sir, I just--ah--" Dongwoo leaned away from him, surreptitiously checking to see if the classmates looked like they would jump in. They were just watching, as was Jinyoung. "It's store policy, sir. If we--" He caught Jinyoung's eye. Jinyoung nodded at him, minutely, then spoke up:

"If we--" He paused, face going slack. "W...ohhh--" his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed without ceremony in a dead faint. One of the students tried to catch him but he still made a very pronounced thud as he hit the shop floor.

 

"Jinyoung!" Dongwoo called, darting out from behind the counter and going to him. One of the belligerent student's classmates pulled him away from the counter, handing the suspect certificate back to him and saying something annoyed in a low voice. The two students still with Jinyoung helped Dongwoo carry him to one of the window seats, where he sat and swayed, still dizzy.

"Should we call someone?" One of them asked, their hands drifting around like they didn't know what to do with them.

"'m fine," Jinyoung said, only a little bit muzzily. "Th'nk you. Dongwoo, maybe...?"

"Auntie won't mind if we closed early," he said reassuringly. "Guys, I'm sorry, let me ring these up real quick--" the angry student had been dragged outside by his friend, so the others were easy to finish with; he waved them out the door with thanks and flipped the sign on the door from 'Open' to 'Closed'.

"And here you'd started to improve my opinion of students," Jinyoung's voice came from right behind him, and Dongwoo yelped and spun around to stare.

" _You_ \--are--"

"I'm fine," Jinyoung said, smiling smugly and patting his shoulder. "Good trick, right? Got rid of them, at least."

"You were...acting?" Dongwoo asked. Jinyoung nodded, and he accused, "That sounded like it hurt, though."

"Oh, it did," Jinyoung said. "Still. Worth it." He grinned at Dongwoo who slowly began to return it, the tension from earlier forgotten.

"Thanks," Dongwoo said sincerly.

"What are friends for?" Jinyoung said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

**Notes:**

_On Scholars: one of CNU's nicknames is 'Classical Scholar', on account of the way he moves slowly, thinks deeply, and does things like bake cupcakes 'representing the hopes for peace between North and South Korea'. Magic is standing in for music a bit in this AU: CNU's mother and sister are both professional singers (trot and pansori, respectively!)_

_아줌마 (lit. 'madame/middle-aged lady') and 이모 (lit. 'aunt') are both used for middle-aged ladies, say serving you at a restaurant, or a neighbor._   
_친구 means both 'friend' and 'person of the same age': the cultural assumption is not that it's impossible to be close with someone older or younger than you, but that you can only truly be equals with someone the same age. 'Same-age friends' like Jinyoung and CNU are somewhat expected to get along._

_Writing spells as a stand-in for composing: Jinyoung was given instruction later on, I believe, but his composition skills were initially and largely self-taught. Talented little shit._

_Retail: the same even in a world of magic. The customer is very rarely right._

_Fainting: a Jinyoung original, his favorite prank (until the members grew so accustomed to it it didn't work). He did it on MTV Match-Up so convincingly he made a PD cry. Little shit._


	2. The Bear, The Fox, and the Squirrel

  
All the normal closing tasks seemed to go faster now that he and Jinyoung were friends. Neither of them were terribly talkative, so he wasn't sure why: but the time definitely seemed to disappear, so that on Sunday night as they finished everything that had to be done Dongwoo felt like it was much too soon. Maybe Jinyoung felt the same, since as they went out the door he bumped their shoulders together, and said casually, "Hey. Come join me tomorrow afternoon for coffee."

"Coffee?" Dongwoo said, absurdly pleased. "When? Where?"

"On the square, behind the building with the big neon sign of a bird? It's called Angel Eye, you can't miss it. My friend Seonwoo works there, he usually gets his break around 2:30...I think you guys will get along."

"He's how old?"

"Just a year younger." Jinyoung held up his hand for a fist-bump. "Call?"

Dongwoo was glad that Jinyoung wanted him to meet his friend, although part of him was a little strangely stung to think that he had other friends--but of course he did. He wasn't a big coffee drinker, but it was fine, and he could get tea if need be. Should he treat? He would be the oldest, so it would be only right. But if Seonwoo worked there he might not want to be treated to coffee, and Jinyoung did have a lot of pride so maybe--he realized that Jinyoung's fist was still patiently waiting in the air, and he belatedly tapped it with his own. "Call," he agreed.

 

When it came Monday afternoon he made his way from the institute to the square, his backpack heavy with a big textbook in case he ended up with extra time to study. Angel Eye was a little harder to find than Jinyoung had made it seem, but at least he wasn't late: Jinyoung was waiting outside, and waved at him when he came into view. "Come on, let's get our drinks and sit down, we don't want to miss any of Seonwoo's break." The interior of the shop was a little bland, but welcoming for all that, with a profusion of soft chairs that marked it a likely college-kid hangout. There was a brief scrabble at the register as both Dongwoo and Jinyoung tried to pay for the drinks: Dongwoo won by virtue of his longer arms, and Jinyoung warned that he would definitely be next. Jinyoung claimed a seat in the corner with the ease of someone who sat there a lot and they both took the first cautious sips of their hot drinks.

"Hyung," a deep voice spoke up, and Jinyoung looked up with a wide smile. Seonwoo was baby-faced with huge eyes, and rabbit-teeth like Dongwoo's own. "Hey! Are you hyung's coworker?"

"This is my friend Dongwoo," Jinyoung said, and Dongwoo awkwardly scrambled upright (he was growing again, and his knees twinged as he did it) to give him a half-bow that Seonwoo returned with a deeper bow of his own.

"Nice to meet you," they both said, as Jinyoung looked between them with a satisfied expression. Seonwoo had some kind of iced drink with him as well as a plate of pastry that he set down on the table.

"Help yourselves, it's expired stuff but still pretty good." He took a long draw of his drink, wincing slightly as he did so, and Jinyoung frowned at him.

"Americano? What for?"

"I haven't been sleeping well lately," Seonwoo said reluctantly, playing with the straw so it squeak-squeak-squeaked in the lid. "I keep...uh...setting fires?"

The two older boys stared at him for a moment. "Don't...do that?" Dongwoo offered.

"Not on _purpose_ , hyung," Seonwoo said, slumping down with a moody expression. "It just happens, sometimes."

"You have the gift?" Dongwoo asked, and Seonwoo made a 'so-so' hand gesture in reply.

"Not enough to do me any good, really...I sure couldn't do what Jinyoung-hyung does...just enough to get me in trouble, sometimes."

"Did you watch the links I sent you?" Jinyoung asked, concerned, but still eating pastry.

"Yeah. Some of the exercises worked a little, but...I don't know."

"My school has a basics-class that's really good," Dongwoo offered, trying not to look at Jinyoung as he said it. "You don't have to be a full-time student or anything, but I'm sure they could help you get some more control so that nothing's, ah, 'leaking' when you sleep."

"That...I don't know." He took another drink of americano, and looked to Jinyoung. "Hyung?"

"If learning from videos doesn't help I guess it wouldn't hurt to try," he said slowly. "And Dongwoo goes there so that's as good a recommendation as you're going to get."

"There's a lot of resources," Dongwoo said, then innocently: "Even part-time students get full access to the library, so you can take just one class and still be able to have a wide range at your fingertips for self-study."

"Self-study is more Jinyoung-hyung's style than mine," Seonwoo said with a laugh, and Jinyoung looked at Dongwoo with narrowed eyes.

"It is," Jinyoung agreed, and Dongwoo smiled at him blandly, knowing that he'd caught him. "Full access?"

"It's a great collection," Dongwoo said, and then to Seonwoo: "At least consider it? I could grab some brochures or something to give you; or if you could drop by the shop some evenings there's some exercises I could maybe show you?"

"That sounds pretty good, actually," Seonwoo said, and beamed at him. "Thanks, hyung!"

"Unappreciated," Jinyoung grumbled into his coffee. "All I do for you. All my wise advice. Dropped at the first chance. I see how it is." He was pressing down a smile as he said it, though, and the other two shared a glance and decided to ignore it.

"You're still in trouble for that fainting stunt," Dongwoo said firmly.

"He did the thing where he pretends to faint?" Seonwoo asked, and Dongwoo nodded in astonishment. "Yep, he does that. It's mostly just annoying after the first time." Jinyoung just smiled smugly and sipped his drink.

 

* * *

 

 

Seonwoo dropped by the store a couple times a week, after that: and now that Dongwoo knew his coffee shop was a good place to study he went there himself almost every day. It was almost a month til registration would open for the new semester at his school, and in the meantime he did his best to help the younger boy with some exercises for control--actually, since Jinyoung was the better teacher, he often taught them to Jinyoung who then turned around and taught them to Seonwoo. Dongwoo and Seonwoo got along extremely well, and in an opposite way to Jinyoung and Dongwoo--namely, they had very different personalities but very similar interests. Seonwoo dropped formal speech almost right away, and as he became more talkative increasingly slipped into a pretty strong southern accent that marked him as being just as provincial as Dongwoo and Jinyoung.

"I'm not much of a fighter," he admitted to Dongwoo when he asked about it, "And there are some places I hang out where not having a city accent is asking for trouble. So you learn pretty quick. It's not like I'm, like, ashamed of where I'm from or anything...."

"Oh no, I understand," Dongwoo said, and Seonwoo's eyebrows shot up at the drawl. "Same."

"Heeeey!" He crowed, and fist-bumped him.

As a matter of convenience, the impromptu lessons tended to happen in the shop during slow times. Seonwoo was a hard worker, very capable, and learned quickly: his attitude, however occasionally grated on Dongwoo. In particular, one evening while he was trying to show him some of the elemental meditations that were supposed to be helpful for someone with a tendency towards fire, Seonwoo kept making jokes about the verbage of the exercise. His language got increasingly crude, and eventually Dongwoo lost a little of his temper and snapped the book closed. "You shouldn't speak like that," he said. Seonwoo blinked at him in shock.

"I...what?"

"The wording is a little old-fashioned but usually there's a reason for that. We do the things we do for a reason: don't you want to learn control? You can't play around with the language of spells: it's not just disrespectful, it's unsafe."

"Well, maybe you should pick a different spell!" He crossed his arms over his chest belligerently. "Not all of us want to be Scholars, it shouldn't be so important." Seonwoo's words were strong but his big manhwa-character eyes were becoming somewhat shiny.

"It is important," Dongwoo persisted, although it was making him feel a little sick to his stomach to be pushing like this. "You can't be so careless, Seonwoo. I'd expect better of you." Seonwoo opened his mouth like he was thinking of saying something rude, but snapped it closed at the last minute. His lips were wobbling downwards, and he forced them into a scowl and stormed off, pushing through the curtain to the back-room and leaving Dongwoo slumped behind on the window-seat.

 

"Problems?" Jinyoung said casually. He was in easy earshot, 'cleaning' a shelf that clearly didn't need it.

"I'm the hyung," Dongwoo said a little helplessly. "I can't just let him do _whatever_ if I think it's wrong. Right?"

"Can't argue with you there. Especially as a fellow hyung. But, still..." Jinyoung abandoned his pretense of cleaning and awkwardly scratched at his neck. "You could have phrased it a little more gently? Maybe?"

"You know he would have just made it a joke," Dongwoo said, and sighed. Jinyoung didn't disagree. "Should I go after him?"

"He's probably crying back there. Maybe not yet?"

"I wouldn't have taken him for the type to cry when scolded," Dongwoo murmured, and Jinyoung chuckled, shaking his head fondly.

"He doesn't show it well, but he has sensitive feelings. And a kind heart. I thought you guys would get along for a reason, and not just because you like the same music."

Dongwoo groaned and sprawled out on the window-seat as best he could (which was basically just his torso with his butt and legs hanging off). "Is it going to be awkward now? I'm not used to being hyung. My sister would catch me up like a _rat_ if she heard me talking like that. I kind of want her advice, but also I never want to have to talk to her about this." Jinyoung patted him gently on the knee, and went back to work. Dongwoo did the same, not without frequent glances towards the back.

 

Seonwoo finally emerged maybe 20 minutes later, eyes and face red from scrubbing, but not looking particularly upset or angry. When he saw Dongwoo he started talking, arily, about nothing in particular, clearly keen to put the whole business behind him.

When he came up beside him, Dongwoo bumped their shoulders together. "You know I only want what's best for you, right?" He couldn't help but say.

Seonwoo groaned. "You sound like my mom," he said in disgust: but he also bumped back. Apparently--all was forgiven.

 

* * *

 

 

With the winter came a new semester, and with the red ink of their thumbprints barely dry on the paperwork Dongwoo dragged both Jinyoung and Seonwoo on a tour of the institute. "What kind of tour could it _be_?" Seonwoo asked. "It's the top five stories of an eighteen-story building. The _lights_ were out downstairs, and I think there's black mold in the stairwell."

"Do you _not_ want to know the one safe elevator in the building?"

"--which makes me feel really grateful to have a hyung who knows everything about the place," Seonwoo finished effusively, and Dongwoo caught him in a headlock (it was a very slow-moving catch that Seonwoo could have dodged easily if he wanted to. Jinyoung rolled his eyes at both of them) and pulled him down the hallway.

It wasn't the most high-class place, to be certain, but everyone they passed by greeted them with friendly nods--they even passed a teacher who greeted both Seonwoo and Jinyoung by name, probably recognizing them from the pictures on their applications. The library was warmly lit and packed with shelves and shelves of books both old and new, and Jinyoung gave it a long approving look that had Dongwoo smiling smugly. He pulled them away towards one last stairway, saying, "You haven't even seen the best part!" They went up the stairs one by one, Dongwoo first taking them steadily two by two, wanting to see their reactions: he got to the top first and turned to see them as they came out onto the roof.

"It's _cold_ ," Seonwoo whined when he was close enough to the door to feel the winter wind on the roof.

"Endure it," Dongwoo said remorselessly. Jinyoung laughed, looking around with interest in his sharp eyes. Dongwoo spread his arms and wiggled his ten fingers. "Ta-daa!"

"It's a garden," Jinyoung said the obvious, looking around with gradually increasing enjoyment. "A little drab now, but it's probably great in the summer, right?"

"It is," Dongwoo said happily. The containers on the rooftop were scattered to reduce the load, and the only things green in the current season were a handful of skinny potted evergreens, but many of the other containers still had colorfully-painted trellises wrapped in winter-brown vines, and of course the containers themselves were pattered as well. "This is my favorite place in the whole institute. It's usually not too crowded, either; most people don't like the wind in winter and the sun in summer--" (" _And_ the rain in monsoon season?" Seonwoo muttered and was gracefully ignored) "--but it's really perfect for studying, only me and one of the teachers really tend to the plants. They have them because they had to, initially, for the spells that need The Breath From The Heart of Things--" Jinyoung snorted and Dongwoo blinked at him.

"Can't you just say quintessence?" He asked drily.

"The old terms are more descriptive," Dongwoo replied. "Anyway, as I was saying--so some of them get culled, of course, during the growing season on the regular for various classes--but never everything, and you can really feel connected here, you know? Unlike a lot of things in the city."

"My hometown isn't exactly a _small_ city," Seonwoo said, but not meanly, and he pinched off the tips of a branch of juniper to enjoy the aroma. "But I see what you mean."

"Right?" Dongwoo grinned at Jinyoung. "You're glad you came, right?"

"It does seem pretty nice," he admitted in return, draping his arms over Seonwoo's shoulders and leaning in to share the sharp green smell. "I'll admit it. I think I could like it here."

"Wait till the class starts," Seonwoo warned. "We might change our minds!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

**Notes:**

 

_Paying for things: it's like the Hunger Games. I often won by virtue of being unni: however, sometimes the other person would literally sneak money into my purse. Treating others to food is SERIOUS BUSINESS._

_Rabbit teefs: ~1998-2013, RIP._

_On being provincial: To Seoulites, everyone not from Seoul is from the countryside--even a Gwangju boy like Baro, from a city of 1.5 million people. Apparently people from Chungcheong-do, like CNU, have a 'drawling' sort of accent._

_On being hyung: the age heirarchy in Korea has two sides: the younger have a responsibility to mind their elders, of course, but there is a reciprocal assumption that elders will look after and guide the younger. CNU, coming from a family where he's the youngest, feels strongly the responsibility of being the eldest but apparently had a hard time at first of figuring out exactly HOW to do that--especially dealing with someone like Baro who admits to originally having a 'bad personality'._

_On crying: They are all crybabies. It is canon. Baro one of the crying-est. Bless._

_Mom: It's CNU. They all say so._

_The institute is kind of garbage: WM Entertainment was very very small and poor when B1A4 were training. Everyone did everything from washing floors onwards: at one point their basement practice room flooded and they had to practice under streetlights. The current nice 7-story headquarters is basically The House That B1A4 Built._

_Plants: CNU is plant mom. It Is Known._

 


	3. The 2 Eldest and 2 Youngest

  
Dongwoo's first class of the semester was at 8 am on Monday. He arrived in plenty of time, so as to pick the best seat--at the back, but in clear view of the board, in a chair that didn't wobble. He methodically went through his supplies, lying them out neatly, and then settled in to wait the 15 or so minutes before the class started. He tucked his earbuds in and began to click aimlessly through tracks on his MP3 player, still a little sleepy. About ten minutes before start time another boy came in, and started slightly to see someone else there. Dongwoo nodded to him politely, taking him in but trying not to stare, for this was a student he'd never seen before. The boy was gangly and brown, and aggravatingly handsome. His cool, inscrutable expression only made him look chic where it would look petulant on Dongwoo, and he tossed his hair back away from his eyes like someone in a commercial. Like his fellow early-arriver, he set out his supplies on his desk.

Dongwoo pulled out one earbud and said diffidently, "Do you need a book?" The boy stared at him, and he hastily explained, "You don't have the book? I only ask because the library has several copies, and you can share mine this class if you like."

"Oh. Oh. Um, no thank you?" He had a light, interesting voice with a delicate adolescent crack in it. "That is, I don't think I need a book."

"Oh?" Dongwoo looked back at his MP3 player at that answer, only continuing out of a sense of duty: "How come?"

"I'm from...well, you wouldn't recognize the name." The boy shrugged his bony shoulders, his cool expression cracking on a faint smile. "It's pretty deep south. But there's 5 separate ley-lines within walking distance of main street." Dongwoo's head shot up at that, knowing just enough to know how rare that was. The boy ducked his head at his interest, expression smoothing over again. "So we all grow up knowing a lot of this stuff."

"Why the class, then?"

"You never know when they'll have discovered something new," the boy said earnestly: then the other half-dozen students started to trickle in and Dongwoo was distracted greeting everyone he already knew. The teacher came in exactly as the clock turned 8, and was talking as soon as he came through the door.

"Good morning, kids. Most of you already know each other, of course, and you will have noticed the new face: will you introduce yourself?"

The boy beside Dongwoo rose carefully to his feet and bowed to the room. "It's good to meet you all. My name is Gong Chanshik." There were a few titters at the name: Chanshik's skin wasn't pale enough to show a blush easily, but from his position Dongwoo could see his hands behind his back go white around the knuckles as they twisted together. None of that showed on his face though, as he continued, "Please take care of me."

"Chanshik is entering early, so I know you will _all_ take care of him," The teacher said pointedly, and nodded for him to sit down, which he did with what Dongwoo guessed was a thankful sigh. The immobility of his handsome face looked more like frozen nerves than cool confidence to Dongwoo now, and he leaned over and said quietly,

"My name is Shin Dongwoo, by the way, but you can call me hyung. Would you like me to show you around when class is over?"

Chanshik glanced at him sideways, measuring his sincerity: after a moment his mismatched eyes crinkled at the corners in a shy smile. "Thank you," he whispered back, and turned to give his attention to the teacher.

 

 

After the class, Chanshik waited patiently while Dongwoo collected and packed up everything, his fingers gently running back and forth on the strap of his book bag. "What have you already seen?"

"Not much, hyung," he said politely. "The admin office. The lobby downstairs. The elevator. This room."

"You took the elevator from the lobby?" Dongwoo asked, astonished. "And you're not still in there waiting to be rescued?"

"Oh! No, I didn't take the lobby elevator: I walked through the building and took the one in the back."

"How did you know? Ah, the teacher said you're entering early--are you someone's relative?"

"Not related to a teacher, no." He looked up and down the hallway in interest as Dongwoo led the way rightwards. "I just...know things? Sometimes?"

"What, psychic?" Dongwoo tried not to frown, not at all comfortable with the idea of someone able to dig around in his brain: psychics were rare, and he had always been rather comforted by that knowledge.

"No, not--not really," Chanshik hastily assured him (either he could read Dongwoo's mind or he could guess what he was thinking _so stop thinking about it either way, Dongwoo_!), his body language crumpling inwards. "I can't...you know...read minds, or anything like that. I just...know things sometimes. Where the missing sock is. Which elevator to take. When it's going to rain. That kind of thing."

"That does sound useful." Dongwoo had stopped in the middle of the hallway, distracted from walking by the conversation. He resumed the tour, reaching out to the younger boy to pat him casually on the arm. "Sorry. Not _sorry_ , I mean, just...."

"I get it," Chanshik said with a very small smile, either naturally calm or as hesitant around strangers as Dongwoo himself. Dongwoo was rather relieved that he didn't seem to need much conversation, and set in earnest to showing him around the building. It mas mostly the same tour he'd given Jinyoung and Seonwoo on Saturday, except he only showed him the door to the roof rather than taking him up. Thinking of the other two reminded him to ask:

"You in the introductory class?" He waited for Chanshik's nod and clapped him on the shoulder. "Good! I have two friends there--you're a '93-liner?--Jinyoung is two years older and Seonwoo one. They're good guys, if you need anything you can just ask them."

"I'm sure I'll be fine. But thank you."

 

* * *

 

 

A Tuesday shift that used to be Jinyoung's was Dongwoo's now--since it happened when the introductory class was going on. It wasn't a particularly busy shift, and his attention kept shifting between the clock and the door, waiting for Jinyoung and Seonwoo to come in from class. They did so around one o'clock, announced by Seonwoo bellowing, "MOM! We're home!" He was carrying a plastic bag full of kimbap, and Dongwoo let him put it down before dragging him over the counter and putting him in a headlock.

"Easy shift?" Jinyoung said casually, setting his own bag down and rescuing the kimbap that was about to teeter off the countertop.

"Sure," Dongwoo said, letting Seonwoo go with a last hard rub of his knuckles across his scalp. "How was the class? Regret it yet?"

" _Yes_ ," Seonwoo said, and was ignored.

"I'm withholding judgement," Jinyoung said. "It wasn't _bad_ , certainly. The book was a little boring, what I already read of it."

"Always better to reinforce your basics," Dongwoo said, and retrieved the two rolls of kimbap that were intended for him. "Was Chanshik there?" He asked around a mouthful of rice and vegetables.

"Chan...who, the southern kid?"

"Yeah. He's in my ley-lines class."

"Yeah."

"Yeah," Seonwoo repeated. "Quiet kid. Seems a little full of himself."

"No more than Jinyoung does," Dongwoo argued, and Jinyoung made a protesting noise through his own mouthful. "Sorry, Jinyoung. It's true, though."

"I can't help it if I know what I'm good at," Jinyoung said. "But point taken. What, you like the kid?"

"He's a kid, is all," Dongwoo said. "And he's from the deep south, so he probably doesn't have any friends or family here...he seemed shy, you know? I just wondered if he was okay."

"You are such a _mom_ ," Seonwoo scoffed, and easily dodged the laconic cuff aimed at his ear. "We'll keep an eye out, okay?"

"I'll tell him where the shop is," Jinyoung offered. "Good for business, anyway."

 

Dongwoo didn't hear anything more about Chanshik for a few weeks: he saw him in the ley-lines class, and apparently he stopped by the shop once when he wasn't there to pick up a door-ward, but that was it--until one Monday evening when Dongwoo was settled into the chair that was now His at the coffee shop to do some studying. He heard a familiar voice ordering, and craned his neck around in interest to see Chanshik at the counter, shifting from foot to foot as he waited for his drink. Dongwoo almost left it at that: but the boy's fashionably-ripped jeans revealed knobbly adolescent knees that were right at Dongwoo's eye-line where he was sitting and for some reason the sight caused a slight pang in the area of his heart. He sat up straight and called, "Hey! Chanshik!" The boy jerked in surprise and stared at him dumbly, and Dongwoo smiled at him, trying to look more welcoming than awkward. "Hey, man, how's it going? Come sit over here, why don't you."

He did so, as soon as the barista handed him his drink (flavored steamed milk--oh god, he _was_ a baby), settling into a chair opposite from Dongwoo and setting his bag gingerly on the table. "Hi, hyung. Thank you."

"Of course," Dongwoo said. The kid really did look grateful, and Dongwoo's conscience twinged. "I'm sorry I haven't been looking out for you better. You're from the deep south, right? Don't know anyone here except classmates?"

"No." He cautiously drank his hot drink, eyes lowered. "You don't have to be sorry, it's not like you have any responsibility or anything."

"Still." Dongwoo sipped at his own tea, long-cold by now but blessedly caffeinated. "Seonwoo and Jinyoung usually meet at the shop on Wednesday to make sure they're ready for the Thursday quiz. I'm sure you'd be welcome to join." Chanshik murmured an indistinct thank-you, and bent his head over a textbook. Dongwoo did the same, and they closed out the cafe in comfortable silence.

 

* * *

 

 

The Wednesday afternoon study sessions became a regular thing over the next few weeks: Seonwoo was a little slow to warm up to the new kid, but perhaps began to see the advantages of no longer being the maknae. On the fourth Wednesday, Dongwoo looked up from coaxing a pair of tiny brass paperweights out from under a shelf (they were animate, made to clench a piece of peper given to them within their blunt jaws, and they'd been stored too near some of the less ruly volatiles and gone a little off the rails) on hearing Jinyoung's concerned voice saying, "Channie? You okay?"

Channie jolted upright, the motion of someone blinking themselves awake, and scrubbed his sleeves across his eyes. "Sorry, hyung," he said in a baby-ish voice that made Dongwoo want to coo over him and pet his fluffy hair. "I'll pay attention, I promise."

"Wild party last night?" Seonwoo asked, turning his cap backwards and propping his feet up on a shelf until Dongwoo glared them off.

Chanshik groaned. "No. I'd just...everyone on my floor is noisy the last few nights, and if I want the shower I have to get up at, like, 5 in the morning: and my room is one of the inner ones so it gets so hot...."

"You live in a goshiwon?" Seonwoo asked. Channie nodded, slumping down further, and he made a face. "Me too. I feel you."

"A goshiwon?" Jinyoung asked, concerned. "By yourself?"

"Me too, hyung," Seonwoo said with a pout.

"Well, so do I." ("The institute dorm is probably worse," Dongwoo muttered) "But I'm an adult and so are you. Channie is a minor!"

"It's not so bad normally," Chanshik said. Jinyoung patted him sympathetically on the arm, and he keeled over to sprawl across his lap, making grumbly puppy noises until Jinyoung's hand started scritching at his scalp. "I just wish they'd be _quiet_."

There was a moment of silence as Jinyoung petted his head and Dongwoo finally got the escapees captured (his pointer finger was _definitely_ going to bruise). "I've got an idea," Jinyoung said. Dongwoo felt himself perk up in mixed trepidation and interest and saw Seonwoo do the same: ideas from Jinyoung were always worth listening, but he sometimes bit off kind of a lot more than he could chew. "I've been actually looking at one-room apartments--since I don't like living in a goshiwon either--the only thing stopping me has been that I can't afford the rent. But if I had a roomate...."

Chanshik looked up at him. "Really?" At the same time, Seonwoo protested,

"Hey, how come you never asked me to be your roomate? You know I hate where I live too." It sounded like he was trying to joke but he actually sounded hurt and offended. Chanshik struggled upright.

"I'm sorry, hyung...of course since you've known each other longer--" as Dongwoo and Jinyoung exchanged panicked awkward looks.

"Don't fight over me, kids," Jinyoung said. "I'll get a big head."

"Why don't...." Dongwoo trailed off, trying to get his thoughts in order, and they waited for him. "I don't like my dorm, either," he eventually said. "Why don't we all share together? We could get an officetel a little bigger than a one-room and it would be completely affordable split four ways."

"That would work," Seonwoo said. He didn't apologize, but he did offer Channie a piece of candy from his bag, which was as good as apologizing.

"It's a plan!" Jinyoung jumped to his feet, patting at his pockets. "Wait, where's--" Chanshik wordlessly fished his phone out from where it had fallen between seat cushions and handed it to him. "Thanks, Channie."

"You're welcome." Chanshik suddenly did a small wiggly dance in his seat and threw his hands up. "New house! New house! New house!"

Seonwoo joined in. "New house! New house! New house! New house!"

"I already regret this," Dongwoo said, not regretting it at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

**Notes** :

_Gong Chan-_ chic _: all the members first impression of Channie was that he was very chic, when actually he was just shy, and slow to warm up to strangers._

_Gong Chan_ shik _: evidentially 'Chanshik' is a rather old-fashioned or countrified name: people often laugh when Gongchan says his own name, like they do when VIXX's Ravi says his real name is Wonshik._

_On being psychic: this is canon. Channie just Knows Things, and ALWAYS wins at Rock-Paper-Scissors, and basically is acknowledged by the others as the most with-it member._

_Kimbap: That shit is delicious, and cheap as hell. You can buy 2 rolls for 5 bucks and all but the most ravenous teenage boy will be satisfied._

_Being the maknae: whether they're two years younger or 20, the maknae is the maknae, and Koreans will automatically adjust their behavior based on where they find themselves in the age hierarchy. (see Big Hyung Kang Hodong on 1N2D suddenly having aegyo and playing the cute little brother on the actor special when there were a dozen men older than him there) So responsible, hyung-at-home Channie isn't faking when he goes from mature and independent to still mature but a lot more babyish: it's all natural, baby._

_Goshiwon: kind of like a dorm/long-term-residence hotel/apartment: a lot of them just have a tiny room with bed and desk for each person, with shared washrooms/laundry/kitchen/etc: a lot of university students (esp young men) use them._

_Bachan: Baro and Channie weren't the closest members for a long time: Baro got scolded for not taking care of Channie as well as he should--well, not everyone will be equally close, that's normal. But that means they are a bit tenser/more awkward initially than the other boys._


	4. 1 blood type B, 4 blood type A

The beep of the electronic door lock signaled someone entering, and Dongwoo looked up to see Seonwoo clattering in, kicking his shoes off into the undifferentiated shoe-pile that the initial organizational system had quickly dissolved to. "Anyone home?" he called, hanging his cap on one of the hooks and raking his hand through his hair.

" _Everyone_ home," Dongwoo said smugly. "What did you burn this time?"

"Hyung," he said with dignity. "I don't _always_ burn things. I have news, though." He looked around the room, exchanging nods with Channie where he was sprawled on a floor cushion before heading for the couch (a 2nd- or 3rd-hand rescue, spelled within an inch of its life before Dongwoo was willing to even touch it for fear of heaven knew what contaminants--comfy, though). On the way he tripped over something in the center of the floor and pitched it into the basket in the corner, labeled 'Quarantine Zone' in Chanshik's careful script, which was where all Jinyoung's spare belongings got exiled. "Where is Jinyoung hyung, then?"

"In the office," Chanshik replied. The 'office', as they called it, was just a small floor-desk in the lofted space where the futons were laid out, tucked in the corner, big enough for two laptops if the people using them were close enough friends. Seonwoo stretched sideways on the sofa, retreiving a pair of balled-up socks from the Quarantine, and pitched them over the railing of the loft with pinpoint accuracy. There was a rattle, of a startled jump more than of his missile knocking something over, and Jinyoung's wide-eyed face appeared over the railing, lifting off one side of his headphones.

"News!" Seonwoo called up at him, and Jinyoung gave him a thumbs-up and took the headphones off entirely, spinning around and slipping his legs through the railings to dangle. His socks didn't match. "There's a new student coming."

"The guy from the coast?" Chanshik asked. "Right, he's starting in the summer."

"He's a spellsinger, right?" Dongwoo said. Seonwoo's feet were in his lap, and he twisted sideways to return the favor. "Mr Choi was beside himself. I guess the institute has never taught a spellsinger before."

"Not in the summer," Seonwoo said importantly. "He's joining the basics class this week."

Everyone stared at him. "It's _three weeks_ from the end of the semester," Jinyoung said, sounding indignant. "Why not just start in the summer?"

"Apparently there was a lot of trouble with the transfer, records or something--" nobody asked him how he knew this: they were all accustomed by now to the fact that Seonwoo was probably better with people than the three of them together, and could get information from any of a dozen people: "--and they wanted him to at least get oriented with the basics class cause they don't do one in the summer."

"I heard he's the best spellsinger the coast's spat out in years," Chanshik mused. "You think so?"

"It would explain the buzz," Seonwoo said wisely. "Though not why he'd come to our piece-of-crap institute." Dongwoo roused himself to protest, and Seonwoo cut him off with, "I did say _our_ piece of crap, hyung."

"I heard that he's from a really traditional family," Jinyoung said, leaning over the railing like he was imparting a secret. "With _inked wards_."

"What, like tattoos?" Dongwoo felt himself make a face, fingers running down the chain of his necklace to the complicated knot at the bottom of it--a much more modern and less invasive method of carrying a personal protective spell. "Seriously?"

"Spellsingers _do_ do a lot of things differently," Jinyoung said. "We'll see when he comes in--tomorrow, I guess, huh."

"Well, you'll have to tell me after," Dongwoo said. "Since I'm the only one not in the basics."

Jinyoung's feet stopped from where they were absently swinging above their heads. "...you know," he said slowly, "There _is_ a way you can see it, Dongwoo."

"Wait, what?" That tone always made Dongwoo nervous. "I'm not going to, like, invent some reason to sit in on the class, Jinyoung, the teacher'd see through that in a second."

"No, no, nothing like that." He leaned over the railing more precariously still, and Dongwoo mentally began rifling through his memorized spells for something to save him should he tip straight over. "The baby monitors."

"The...do you mean the Samshin Beasts?" Dongwoo said, disapprovingly. The little wooden statuettes, all of varied appearance, looking like nonspecific but welcoming round-edged creatures, were enchanted with monitoring spells and placed in a child's room. They were mostly made by traditional shamans, and the shop had quite a few of them in stock at any given time. "The teacher is also gonna see you suddenly putting a statue on your desk."

"No, no, just slide the spell over, you know?" At his words Chanshik looked baffled, and Jinyoung explained further: "It's a lot easier to transfer spells than to cast them. Even a spell you don't really know. We could transfer the monitor spell to, I don't know, one of Seonwoo's caps, and you can watch through that!"

"Plausible," Dongwoo said slowly. "I guess. Isn't it creepy, though, kids? For us to do this? It feels creepy."

"It's not really like watching someone _secretly_ ," Seonwoo argued. "It's not like we're hiding a spell in the bathrooms. All the students in the classroom will be looking at him already, you'll just be one more student."

Dongwoo sighed. It was clear that the idea had taken hold, and there was nothing he could do to stop it now: and he was admittedly quite curious. "Oh, alright. But if it goes badly I will deny all knowledge of _any_ of you."

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

There was a first-come-first-served study spot in the library--little more than an old cushion wedged between two shelves in a corner--and Dongwoo claimed it a little while before the others' class started. Jinyoung had chosen a baby monitor ( _oh no, now he's got_ me _calling them that!_ ) that had apparently remained unsold in the store for several years, reasoning that it would be the least missed. Dongwoo couldn't figure out why no one had wanted the little thing; sure, it was sharper-looking than the usual round friendly shape, but it had a very alert look about it that he liked. He didn't have to keep it with him--they could easily transfer the spell back at home--but he found himself feeling sorry for it, and had tucked it in his pocket that morning. It sat at his knee on the old flooring of the library, and he petted its head gently with a fingertip before raising the monocle that the parent would look through to his eye. Suddenly it was as if he himself was sitting in the class, looking around from Seonwoo-head-height. The student's voices were a little distorted but perfectly audible, and Dongwoo settled back to wait for something to happen.

A little before class-time the teacher came in, speaking in a low voice to someone--clearly the new student. From his perspective Dongwoo could see all the students in the class being very unsubtle about their rubbernecking, which made him feel better about looking himself. For all the fuss, the new boy wasn't particularly remarkable: not very short or very tall, a little chubby but not very, handsome but not overly so. He had thick glasses and an active, interested mouth, and he either ignored the staring or didn't notice it. The teacher spoke to him a little while longer, handing him some papers from the desk, and then he turned and looked at the class. He might have been a little nervous--he bounced up and down slightly on the balls of his feet--but his chin took on a mulish tilt and he met everyone's gaze squarely. "Hello. My name is Lee Junghwan; I'll work hard." His coastal dialect was seriously no joke, the inflections rising and falling like ocean waves throughout the phrase.

The rest of the class was pretty dull--the teacher tried to keep the class occupied, with no time for gawking or asking questions--and Dongwoo found himself dozing off. He was jolted back to alertness when the class came to an end and there was a clatter of people gathering their things. He raised the monocle back up to see that the teacher and most of the students left immediately: just his own three stayed with a couple of others. "You're from the coast, right?" One of the other boys asked politely enough. Junghwan nodded.

"Yeah. Why, is it a problem?"

"No, it's not," the student said, and Seonwoo butted in,

"We're just curious. There hasn't been a spellsinger here before."

"Well, there's plenty of us back home, so I'm not sure what to tell you." Junghwan stopped gathering his stuff and looked them over. "Aren't you going to introduce yourselves?" Everyone did so, and Seonwoo was the last one.

"We're the same age," Seonwoo said. "Let's be friends." Junghwan accepted his handshake, and Seonwoo bobbed a bow. "Can you take off your shirt?"

Junghwan stopped shaking his hand and gaped at him. "...sorry?"

"Your shirt. Can you take it off?" Jinyoung said, and the other students nodded. "We're curious."

Junghwan stared at them all, and Dongwoo saw his face move around a dozen different expressions. "...what?" They all just looked at him expectantly, and he eventually made an aggrieved sound and lifted his shirt...to reveal no tattoos at all, just a blinding-white torso. "Is this some sort of hidden camera prank??" His voice was muffled by the shirt, but his dialect made the question sound extra baffled.

"No, sorry," one of the other students said. "They said you had inked wards."

Junghwan dragged his shirt down and his hands flailed a little in the air. " _Who_ said? I'm from the _coast_ , not the Goryeo Dynasty!"

"Sorry," Jinyoung said unrepentantly. "It would have been interesting if you did though, don't you agree?"

"I guess?" Junghwan said.

"Let us make it up to you," Chanshik said unexpectedly. "Dongwoo hyung gives the best tours of the institute: let's go meet him and he'll show you around!"

Dongwoo set the monocle down. "I feel like I'm in trouble, somehow," he said to the little wooden figure.

 

 

All four of them entered the library just a minute later, and he stood up to meet them, holding his hand out to Junghwan as he greeted him with a shallow bow. "It's nice to meet you, Junghwan. I'm sorry they did that strange thing, after just meeting you."

"Well, it wasn't too bad, really, there's a lot worse--" he cut himself off, peering at him with narrowed eyes. "Wait. How do you know that."

"Oh. Yes." He held out the monocle and the empty figurine, which Seonwoo deposited his hat over with a dramatic flourish. "Sorry," Dongwoo said sheepishly.

"You--" Junghwan threw his hands up. "Are things here so boring that I am your only source of entertainment? Seriously!"

"We're going to be good friends, though, hyung," Chanshik told him happily. Junghwan didn't think much of it; the other three, who knew statements like that from Chanshik weren't just wild guesses, exchanged glances.

"Can you transfer it back already?" Dongwoo asked Jinyong to distract himself, shaking the hand that held both wooden creature and cap. "I bet he feels empty."

"Oh, gods, are you anthropomorphizing the baby monitor now?" Jinyoung sighed, even as he did as requested. "Naming the plants was bad enough...."

"Spiky is a _tender perennial_ ," Dongwoo said defensively. "It was very impressive that she made it through winter so healthy, she earned a name of her own!"

"I don't know what is happening right now, seriously," Junghwan said to the air. Chanshik grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the door.

"You're ours now, hyung, no take-backs!"

"If this is another hidden camera I'm going to _scream_ ," Junghwan said peevishly. "I will! People don't like it when I scream, things _happen_!"

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

**_Notes:_ **

_Officetel: a kind of apartment, sometimes rented as an office, that's over a business of some kind. They often look like[this](https://43663-187329-raikfcquaxqncofqfm.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/20161129_165717.jpg): here's [a tour](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocxrgp00fcs) of another one._

_Spellsingers: I know I said magic is kind of standing in for music, but there's no reality where Sandeul doesn't sing. It just doesn't compute._

_Samshin beasts: Samshin, or the Samshin Grandmother, is a goddess of childbirth in Korean mythology, with associations in traditional shamanism of protecting children from birth to 7 years old. I don't think there's anything like a tradition of little animal statues: it just seemed like something that could be done in this world of magic!_

_Channie: he doesn't know magic in this AU even as much as Seonwoo does: in real life, Gongchan was cast from a photo and as far as I know, never had any particular interest in singing beforehand. He had to learn everything from the ground up, and with stage fright too!_

_Nice to meet you, now strip: Sandeul was the last member to join, and the company staff had started rumors that he was covered in tattoos...so when the other four met him literally one of the first things they did was ask him to take off his shirt. You can't make this shit up._

_On dialects: Busan boy Sandeul is known for keeping a strong dialect/accent when the other members mostly lost theirs: you might have seen a korean tv show captioning a Busan native's speech with ↗↘↗ to show the rise and fall of their characteristic intonations. To me, it just makes people from Busan sound like very active and expressive speakers: and indeed the natural and necessary inflections in English can sound very much like rap or music to some Koreans, apparently._

_Plant names: several years back CNU shared on twitter the whole saga of him becoming a plant mom and raising plants from seed at the dorm. It was adorable. His cucumber plant was named 'Yellowy'._

_Chanshik and Junghwan: Their relationship is one my my favorites. Of course Channie loves all the hyungs, but there are certain sides to his relationships with most of them (awkward with Baro: CNU the stern disciplinarian: Jinyoung who needs to be taken care of) that aren't present in his relationship with Sandeul, whom he seems to regard with the kind of worship that boys have for a super-hero-like big brother._


	5. The three-year plan

  
Dongwoo hadn't coerced anyone into helping him with the rooftop garden. Really he hadn't. So it was a mystery to everyone involved how they all somehow found themselves on the roof every Monday morning when Dongwoo did the weekly tasks of watering, pruning, fertilizing, tying-back, humming small encouragement charms at wilted leaves, gently dislodging undesirable insects and courteously avoiding beneficial ones. They didn't all have the same knack for it that he did: Jinyoung forgot basic things, Junghwan was indifferent to anything inedible, and Seonwoo was pretty good at it but tended to start small fires when he was really focusing on the plants. (Chanshik, the only really good assistant Dongwoo had, had initially solved the problem with a spray bottle of water spritzing the small embers before they could really catch: he'd soon switched to spritzing Seonwoo, which proved more effective in the long run)

With the addition of the others the rooftop had slowly accumulated a small scattering of weatherproof cushions, and a broken umbrella lashed to a heavy wooden chair, and a good-weather charm of _very_ suspicious origin that did nothing but glow faintly green when it was about to be very windy. The umbrella-shaded chair, reverently dubbed 'the throne', was a much-coveted first-come-first-served seat on the sunny roof. Junghwan had claimed it first this morning--which lasted all of five minutes before Jinyoung dropped into his lap.

" _Hyung_ , you're _hot_ and I'm gonna be all _sweaty_!" Junghwan groaned. Jinyoung ignored him and sprawled back against his shoulder with a blissful cat-like smile. Junghwan complained some more, making a great variety of whiny-baby faces--apparently forgetting that he could easily evict the other with a spell, or an elbow, or a single fingertip in one of several ticklish spots.

"If I had a nickle every time Junghwannie made that face, I could retire before I'm thirty," Seonwoo teased. Junghwan made a more gruesome face still, and Seonwoo stuck his tongue out right back.

"Don't fight, kids," Dongwoo murmured. He was re-potting Jojo, and she was always sensitive to loud sounds.

"What _do_ you plan to do by the time you're thirty, Seonwoo?" Jinyoung asked him. (the words warbled: Junghwan had added wiggles to his whines in an effort to shake him loose)

"Own my own cafe," he said promptly. "I'm learning the business side, too, not just making drinks. I'll be the assistant manager in a year, and save up that salary for a few years, then buy a place and make it up real nice."

"Jinyoungie hyung's magic shop can be next door," Chanshik offered. Quietly. Dongwoo was grateful.

"I do have a five-year plan," Jinyoung admitted. The rattling hadn't worked and he relaxed again, triumphant.

"You really want to sell trinkets forever, hyung?" Junghwan asked. Jinyoung squished his cheeks between his hands, and he hissed like a lizard.

"Not a general shop. A specialty shop. One-off wards, inventions, made-to-order potions--"

" _Nobody_ will buy potions from you," Dongwoo said, done with the repotting. "You're currently _failing_ alchemy. After every practical lab the other professors buy the alchemy teacher shots."

"But I'm learning a lot," Jinyoung said. "I'm only failing because I don't stick to the book."

Seonwoo flopped down on one of the cushions. "If your magic shop is near my coffee shop I'm making Dongwoo hyung put escape portals in _every room._ "

"I'm not _that_ good at portals," Dongwoo said, flattered, and patted Seonwoo's cotton-candy-dyed hair.

"This _is_ a five-year plan," Junghwan said. "You will be by then." Dongwoo went and sat on Jinyoung, forcing a laugh out of him and an agonized groan from Junghwan. "And what, do I sing illusion magic in the coffee shop?" He said, voice muffled. "Panoramas to entertain the patrons?"

"All your panoramas are so cheesy," Seonwoo said. Junghwan shook an impotent fist at him.

"And Chanshik can do anything, right Channie?" Dongwoo said. After a moment he realized that the maknae hadn't responded, and looked up to see him looking at Jinyoung--what could be seen of him in the pileup--with a strange expression. "Channie?"

The others caught on that something was going on, and also looked at their youngest. When Jinyoung's face slid into view, Chanshik smiled a crinkly, happy smile at him. "It's a good idea, hyung."

"What is?" Seonwoo asked. "The magic shop?" Chanshik shook his head, still smiling.

"I don't know what the idea is," he said, still directly to Jinyoung: "But I know it's a really, really good one."

Jinyoung looked back at him, maybe a little uneasy the way they all were when Channie knew more about them than they knew about themselves. "...let me think about it some more," he said slowly. "It's only a little baby idea right now."

Seonwoo groaned loudly, and went to join the stack (as Junghwan wheezed dramatically). "Warn me ahead of time! My sister wants to come here in a couple of years, the place needs to still be standing then."

"It won't be when I'm done with it," Junghwan huffed from his place at the bottom of the human parfait. When Channie rested himself on top (lightly, angel child that he was) he sang a short phrase that reduced everyone's weight by half before resuming a litany of complaints.

(He still didn't actually shove them off, though)

 

* * *

 

 

 

Three Mondays later Jinyoung had them meet him in front of a theater in a part of town they didn't usually go to. He then led the way down a series of narrow walkways, mysteriously refusing to explain, until he stopped them in front of a corner lot that held an old but sturdy-looking brick building. The "For Sale" sign in the window was almost illegible through dust and cobwebs, and both Channie and Dongwoo made unhappy sounds. "What's this?" Junghwan asked.

"My idea," Jinyoung said: "And a three-year plan." The others looked from him to the building, warily.

"...for your magic shop?" Seonwoo asked. "It looks terrible. But still way out of your price range--an entire building?"

"Not at all," Jinyoung said, and passed around printouts of a real estate page. "It used to be a noraebang--pretty popular one, too. It's not as old as it looks: it was designed to have that kind of old-fashioned look, you know? It's been vacant for about 5 years, and they are practically giving it away by now."

"What's the catch?" Chanchik said suspiciously. Dongwoo pointed to him, having the same thought.

Jinyoung cleared his throat. He was wearing the expression he always did when he knew he was going to have a hard sell to make the rest of them see thigns as he did. "Well. It is sometimes...a lot of the time...not here."

They stared at him.

"You lost me," Junghwan said.

"Well, five or so years ago they had a little ghost problem--" They all shuddered: "--and cut corners on the clenasing ritual. It was only supposed to sent the _spirits_ to another dimension, but it kinda...knocked loose...the whole building."

"I am _not_ helping you renovate a building that spends half its time in a _ghost dimension_!" Seonwoo said.

"Not in a ghost dimension," Jinyoung denied. "Don't be silly, Seonwoo. Physical things can't visit the spiritual planes. It goes somewhere else."

Dongwoo crossed his arms. "Are there still ghosts?"

"No, no sightings. The ritual worked too well rather than not well enough." Jinyoung squinted at him. "Why the concern? You don't react that way to the practice room ghost."

"The practice room ghost leaves people alone," he said firmly. "It's almost like a mascot, at this point."

"I think we're forgetting the main point," Seonwoo said, "Which is, it doesn't matter how cheap it is, no one's gonna shop somewhere that's only sometimes here."

"That's where the three-year plan comes in." He pulled them into a huddle, increasingly animated. "We can pool our money--go into business together! We can have a cafe, or bar, or cafe/bar: and a magic shop: and even something else, I'm thinking entertainment, for the patrons--maybe based on Junghwan's illusion magic? Or using the noraebang equipment?" He brushed the half-finished thought off. "It's a work in progress. Where would we ever find a better opportunity?"

"It's _only sometimes there_ ," Junghwan repeated in exasperation.

"But we can fix that," Jinyoung said eagerly. "Earning your title takes a Great Working, doesn't it Dongwoo?" He answered with a nod, and Jinyoung continued: "Right! Me and Seonwoo aren't going for full Scholarship--"

"Me either!" Junghwan cut in. "I already have a title."

"Fine, or Mr. Spellsinger here. Chanshik--"

"I'm here for lack of other options," Channie said easily. "I'm not married to the idea of a formal title."

"Great!" Jinyoung stepped back and gestured at the whole of the building. "There's your Great Working! We can all work together and scrape together a ritual--there's information to be found about the original ritual that went wrong, that'll give us a starting place--and perform it to anchor the whole building back in place! That would be 'great' enough, right?"

"I would think so," Dongwoo agreed slowly. "But...where even to begin...."

"First we have to know where it _goes_ ," Channie said practically. "Even if it isn't some ghost dimension."

"We could come after the semester's over," Seonwoo said. He was clearly coming around to the idea. "As long as it never stays gone long, we could camp out inside, wait for it to move, look out the windows. Simple as that!"

"I think you're underestimating it just a little," Junghwan said, reluctantly intrigued. "This is a terrible idea. It could go wrong so easily. I'm too young to die--I don't even have a girlfriend!"

"What does that have to do with dying, stupid," Seonwoo scoffed at him, and Junghwan scowled back.

"I don't want to miss out! On _life_!"

"Kids," Dongwoo said peacefully.

Chanshik, evidently in the spirit of scientific inquiry, scooped up a bit of gravel and pitched it at the building. It didn't disappear--nothing magical happened--he did crack a window though. "You're fixing that," Jinyoung told him.

 

* * *

 

 

 

Their building--they were already thinking of it as theirs--never seemed to be away for more than a week at a time. Junghwan was in charge of preparing enough food to last at least that long, and Seonwoo was helping him. They were the two noisiest people in the house, elbows tangling and trying not to trip over each others' feet in the tiny kitchen space. Jinyoung, who was useless at packing, had been released to continue fine-tuning his current project: and Dongwoo and Chanshik had their own project to finish before what was being termed the 'camping trip'.

"Bring out the victim," Chanshik intoned, clearly imitating someone (who, Dongwoo didn't know).

"Shhh," he said. "Don't say it that way." The little Samshin beast lived in his pocket these days as a kind of good-luck charm: he'd gone to buy it from Auntie and instead had been told to just take it. Its little pointed nose had become shiny with absent-minded rubs, and he set it lightly in the center of the spell diagram drawn on the back of a torn paper bag.

"You may have build it _space_ for a brain, hyung, but it doesn't actually have one yet," Channie laughed, adjusting its position slightly. "Even this is only gonna be a kind of brain."

Dongwoo hummed, trying not to be nervous: animating a tiny statuette took less power but far more control than something bigger--it was the same principle that made magic users endlessly debate the benefits of making a Borrower-sized vs human-sized construct. He'd laid down the groundwork patiently over weeks, and now it was Chanshik's turn to cast the final ritual. "Still. He is magical, and they pick up things, you know. It's never a bad idea to be kind."

"Yes, hyung." Channie also patted the small polished nose. "Are you sure you don't want to do this?"

"You're as good at this kind of thing as I am," Dongwoo said, and shook his shoulder in a friendly way. "I trust you." Channie beamed at him and set to work.

 

 

They relied on Chanshik's instincts to pick the best time to enter the building. It was very early morning when they did, spilling out of the taxi with their luggage and walking the back way to get to it. They stood in front and looked it over for a while: it looked as solid as ever, like it hadn't changed in 20 years--Dongwoo had seen the empty lot when the building was elsewhere, but he still found it hard to reconcile the two sights. "We sure about this, kids?" He asked, just to be safe. Malgeumie, as he'd dubbed the the now-animate wooden beast, poked its tiny head out of his shirt pocket and looked as well.

"I didn't fix all this for nothing," Junghwan huffed. He and Seonwoo were carrying a cooler between them, which probably could feed  _ten_ people for a week. ("What will you do if we're only gone a day?" Seonwoo had asked him during the prep, apparently just for the enjoyment of hearing his rant in response.) "Let's just go in. Lets go. Ahh, I don't know!"

"Deosn't the clanking make you feel secure, though?" Jinyoung said cheerfully. They had (with permission) raided the store's charm storage to borrow for this endeavor, and they all had far more than the usual number wooden amulets, and bespelled rings, and thin chains that could have been made from links of water. "We're warded against possession, and suggestion, and back-shock, and stepping on nails--"

"Dust bunnies, crickets, sub-par strawberries...." Seonwoo added mockingly.

"I saw you grab three of the same charm for clear sight, Cha Seonwoo," Junghwan told him witheringly. "What are you expecting to see?"

"None of us know what to expect," Jinyoung, the mediator, said. "Except maybe Channie." They all looked at the maknae's face searchingly. He just smiled at them, as serene and self-contained as he was most of the time.

"I'd tell you if I knew," he said. Which was true enough.

"Well, we're not getting anywhere just standing out here," Jinyoung said. "Now, come on, kids, let's do a cheer real quick." He dropped the two bags he held on the ground and held out a hand invitingly. The others shed their burdens similarly, into an over-prepared jumble on the ground, and put their hands in. When they were all in, Jinyoung looked around at each of their faces for a moment before beaming at them. "This is going to go great, I know it. Fighting!" They all chorused 'Fighting!' and pumped their hands once.

Then Seonwoo stuck his foot into the middle of the circle, wobbling slightly; the others followed his example, laughing, and shouted "Fighting!" again. Then Chanshik stuck his head in, and Junghwan his elbow, and they all gathered their heads and elbows and shouted the loudest "FIGHTING!" yet before collapsing in giggles in the faint morning light of the quiet street.

They gathered up everything in much better spirits and went in the front of the building with a simple unlocking spell from Dongwoo. Inside they all stopped and looked around in great interest. The lobby was in very good shape, considering that it had been abandoned and involuntarily dimension-hopping for several years. There were cobwebs in the corners, but they were all old and as fragile as antique lace. The dust wasn't thick, just noticeable, and everything was fairly neat and orderly. "They must have made it tidy before calling in the shamen for the ritual," Dongwoo thought aloud. "Then pulled out everything they could salvage once the building started...moving."

"No power," Channie stated the obvious. He dug in one of the bags and pulled out an assortment of milky glass marbles. He passed each person a couple and they breathed an activation word into them and tossed them upwards where they hovered near the ceiling as globes of soft white light. Even Seonwoo could use marsh-lights easily, though the light from the ones he activated had a more orange-y tint. Jinyoung settled down cross-legged in the center of the floor, paging through his notebook, while the other four split into pairs to explore the place. It was pretty anti-climactic: just like the lobby, the various rooms had nothing obviously amiss with them, except holes and sometimes un-capped wires where noraebang equipment had been pulled loose and carried away. They reconvened in the lobby very soon, where Jinyoung was coughing as he cracked the blinds to let some natural light into the room.

"...now what?" Junghwan asked.

Dongwoo set Malgeumie down on the ground, where its four pointed limbs click-clicked across the floor as it explored. "Now we wait, I guess."

 

 

They were on their 6th game of Mafia when it happened: there was no rattle or sense of movement, but the light coming through the front windows was suddenly much brighter. They all stared in silence for a long minute. Malgeumie, at Dongwoo's gentle urging, clicked lightly over to the window and peeked through with a crinkle of the plastic blinds where its little nose parted it.

Dongwoo patted at his pockets til he found the monocle and lifted it to his eye. Through the beast-eye view he saw the pretty unremarkable sight of a city street. He lowered the lens. "Looks fine," he said, and there was a mass scrambling for the door. They all cracked it cautiously and looked out. The street was sunlit, the buildings not as tall as the ones in the city they came from: also there were plenty of gaps for light to come through, the buildings scattered rather than tightly packed together.

Seonwoo started to lean out and was pulled back by his ear by Dongwoo. They had all agreed previously not to step foot outside the building, lest anyone be left behind. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"No problem." Jinyoung shepherded everyone back from the double door, and they propped both of them open and all sat in the doorway, looking everywhere with fascination. He cautiously reached through the door to grab up a stray pebble, and tucked it in the sample baggie that Chanshik held out for him. At the reminder, Dongwoo belatedly pulled out the little dreamcatcher from his pack and hung it in the doorway to collect magical data about wherever they were that could eventually be used in the big anchoring ritual. The streets were hardly busy but they weren't abandoned either, and one man came close enough to hear when Junghwan called out to him.

He was a tallish man, with sandy hair and dark eyes that widened in interest as he saw them packed into the entrance of the traveling building. "Hello!" he called out, striding up to them. "Is this your building then? Welcome to the Sash!"

"It's not ours," Jinyoung said, standing to accept the handshake the man offered when he was close enough. "Yet. Do you live here? Where _is_ here?"

"Live and work," the man said, as he shook hands with the other four as well. "About three years now. It's...well, it's kind of hard to explain. It's a pocket dimension, obviously: and it seems to draw un-anchored bits of reality to itself." He smiled at them, a wide and sincere smile that had his eyes almost disappear into crescents. "It kept trying to pull in bits of our stock, so we finally just moved the whole store over. There's still a portal back home, but with more and more people washing up here I think we're going to be a self-sustaining community in a year or two! My names Jinki, by the way. And you?"

They introduced themselves in a brief flurry of bows and formalities, before Junghwan blurted, "Does this building always come here? We're thinking of getting it, like we said, but if it goes somewhere different every time...."

"Well, it's a regular visitor, certainly. Not as..." he looked at his watch, craned his neck around, and pointed at a blank spot beside the road: a blank spot that, as they watched, suddenly was filled with a tall old beech tree. "...not as regimented as some. But it comes here a lot."

Jinyoung made an interested sound in this throat. "Ooh. That is good to know. Say, do you have much in the way of entertainment around here? Places people go to hang out after their day, or whatever?"

"Not really," Jinki said. He leaned back to look at the face of the building they were in, almost tipping over for a moment before regaining his balance. "No noraebang, any way."

"That is _very_ good to know," Jinyoung said meaningfully, and looked at the other four with his idea-face on full display. "Don't you think?"

"Two more years, hyung," Chanshik said. "That's the plan."

"It sure is." Seonwoo put his hands in his pocket and turned back to Jinki with his most likable, friendly look. "Why don't you tell us more about--what did you call it?--the Sash."

"I'll have to get to work in a while," Jinki said after another glance at a watch. "But if you're going to be neighbors--work can wait."

 

* * *

 

  
If the building was going to be anchored elsewhere, it would do to have a way to get back to the empty lot that (on paper) Dongwoo and Jinyoung were now co-owners of. To that end, they were setting up a heavy stone doorframe right in front of the existent one, free-standing, and with a salvaged door in the center. "I'm a scholar, not a bricklayer," Dongwoo groaned as he had to adjust an angle for the fourth time.

"You're not either," Seonwoo said, "Yet." Dongwoo aimed a swipe at his back that he dodged agilely.

"I still can't believe we're actually going this," he murmured. Malgeumie dropped a rusty nail at his feet, and he stroked its tiny head with his fingertip in praise.

"You better believe it because you're doing it," Seonwoo said. He then cleared his throat and said to the brick in his hands: "You'll do great. You always do." Dongwoo squished his cheeks between his palms, ignoring his complaints about dust, and gave him a tight hug.

"If you're getting sentimental I'm gonna cry, Seonwoo."

"Who's crying?" Junghwan's voice came, and he brushed through the front of the tent they'd set up around their construction. "Who's sentimental? They're about to be more so. I got us a sign--well, it's actually two signs, but the fonts are totally similar and I bet I can make the colors the same. We can hang it over the stage!" Chanshik and Jinyoung stuck their heads out of the building's actually door at the commotion, and Junghwan angled himself sideways and hefted a bulky person-sized package through the door. "Come on! I wanna see how it looks!"

"How can we have a sign if we don't have a name?" Channie asked in confusion as he held the door open.

"That's the best part! As soon as I saw them at the second-hand sale, boom--I knew it was the perfect name." The others helped him as he dragged the mysterious sign up on the stage, then two chairs which he arranged facing them. "Wait for it...wait for it..." he propped the bundle against the chair backs and swept off the wrappings, jumping down from the stage and whirling to stand beside them. "See?"

They all regarded it.

"It's kind of cheesy, don't you think?" Jinyoung said.

" _We're_ kind of cheesy," Chanshik defended. "I think it's great, hyung."

"You'd think anything was great," Seonwoo sighed, but looked the sign over consideringly. "I think I could get used to it, though.

The sign, actually two flourescent signs hooked together, proclaimed 'Sweet Girl' in almost-matching cursive letters.

"...I don't know," Dongwoo said thoughtfully. "I think I kind of like it."

 

 

 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/28809296637/in/dateposted-public/)

 

* * *

 

**Notes:**

_The B1A4 stack: It is my favorite thing when they all pile into a stack on top of one unfortunate member's lap or body. They do it a lot. They had to do it here._

_Ghosts: a pretty large percentage of Koreans believe in ghosts. (One of my students once asked me in Korean, "Teacher, do you have ghosts in America?" and was told scornfully by a classmate, "No, stupid, they have zombies.") Jinyoung and Sandeul report having had several unnerving experiences with a ghost in their building/practice room._

_Noraebang: 노래, song, + 방, room: a place where you go to sing karaoke. There's usually a bunch of small private rooms, each with a karaoke machine and a couple mics._

_Malgeumie: CNU's beloved pupper who passed away in 2016. I wouldn't leave out lil Malgeumie!_

_Protection charms: they take time and energy to make, and people who don't use magic have to buy them: so you mostly only regularly keep one or two on your person._

_Fighting spirit!: the boys actually did this dumb cheer in the middle of an[interview](http://aviateb1a4.tumblr.com/post/33402564498/transint-121002-star-column-part-4-b1a4-our). I love them so much. Actually all [interviews ](http://aviateb1a4.tumblr.com/post/33280273650/transint-120928-star-column-part-1-those)in that [series ](http://aviateb1a4.tumblr.com/post/33280804116/transint-121002-star-column-part-2-charging)are [great](http://aviateb1a4.tumblr.com/post/33402263042/transint-121002-star-column-part-3-whats)._

_Mafia: In the early days the boys didn't even have a tv in their dorm. They spent a lot of time playing board games and party games, including Mafia._

_Oh my god it's Jinki: SHINee owns a clothing store in the Sash! Onew is my favorite and he should be everyone's!_

_I'm a ___ not a ____: Yes. It's a Star Trek reference._

 

_Thank you! I appreciate anyone who took the time to read my goofy li'l story about CNU and the Magic Boys. ^^ Comment if you can to let me know what you thought, and good luck to the boys in all their future endeavors!!_


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